Reply to Usage of "Have" and "Had" on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 02:16:47 GMT

mikii — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 02:16:47 GMT

wow....good explaination.

I have learn something new about \"have\", \"has\" and \"had\" ....thankyou so much

My english is terrible too..

Reply to Usage of "Have" and "Had" on Thu, 25 Nov 2010 10:42:30 GMT

lovejoypeacce — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 10:42:30 GMT

Thanks much!! Don’t worry, I welcome anyone’s input!

Reply to Usage of "Have" and "Had" on Thu, 25 Nov 2010 07:14:30 GMT

autolycus — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 07:14:30 GMT

I'm not a mom, but there's a 'not so difficult' set of explanations. Please bear with me?

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'Have' goes with 'I', 'you', 'they' and collective nouns like 'Manchester United' (single groups that can be substituted with 'they').

'Has' goes with 'he', 'she', 'it' and anything that can be replaced by those pronouns (like 'Dad' = 'he', 'Samantha' = 'she', 'the dog' = 'it').

That means also that if you think of 'Manchester United' as 'it', then you would say 'Manchester United has...', while if you think of 'Manchester United' as 'they', then you would say 'Manchester United have...'.

'Had' is the past tense of both 'have' and 'has'. It is a bit like saying 'have-d' or 'has-ed', except that it is a lot easier to say.

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Now, it is possible to construct a sentence like 'I have had this done to me before.'

So why is it 'have had'?

That's because the sentence is actually, 'I have (something),' in which the (something) is 'this has been done to me before'. Because 'has been done' refers to a past event, it becomes 'had'. But I have it because it is still the present case that it has happened to me before. It is called the 'present perfect tense' because you are thinking in the present of something that is completed.

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You can also use 'had had' if the thing is over, because 'had' is also what we call a 'past participle' as well as a 'past tense'.

For example, 'I had had my car polished' is similar to 'I had thought of going to the zoo' — both are 'I had... ' followed by another past tense. This is called the past perfect tense.

What it really is, is two past actions, one 'more past' than the other.

So 'I had (done something in the past)' may imply something like 'I had...' and I no longer have. My car is not polished anymore, although it had been. I had the thought of going to the zoo, but I no longer have this thought. Therefore it was in the past and it is over and you do not presently have it.

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Sorry if it seems messy. English is a terrible language...